Web cutting device in an apparatus for splicing an old web and a new web

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for splicing an old and a new web in abutting relation, comprising a web feed out station, a web cutting station and a web splicing station. The old and new webs are fed from the feed out station into substantially parallel relation and pass between a pair of rotatable drums at the cutting station and a pair of rotatable drums at the splicing station. One of the drums at the cutting station has a blade for cutting the old and new webs, and a perforated old web holding and releasing portion disposed adjacent one side of the blade. The other drum at the cutting station has a perforated new web holding and releasing portion that is disposed on the side of the blade opposite to the one side when the cutting drums are in positions such that the blade is disposed adjacent to the other drum. One of the drums at the splicing station has a perforated portion adapted to retain a splicing tape thereon for application to the abutted new and old webs at the splicing station.

United States Patent [191 Takimoto 51 Feb. 20, 1973 [54] WEB CUTTINGDEVICE IN AN APPARATUS FOR SPLICING AN OLD WEB AND A NEW WEB [75]Inventor: llisashi Takimoto, Ashigara- Kamigun, Kanagawa, Japan [73]Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.,

Kanagawa, Japan [22] Filed: Feb. 17, 1971 [21] App]. No.: 116,016

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data [58] Field of Search ..156/502,505, 507, 157, 159, 156/510; 83/98, 154, 152, 346

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Takimoto 1 56/502 X 3/1960Fillmann et a1 ..l56/l57 X 12/1970 Osta ..l56/505 [57] ABSTRACTApparatus for splicing an old and a new web in abutting relation,comprising a web feed out station, a web cutting station and a websplicing station. The old and new webs are fed from the feed out stationinto substantially parallel relation and pass between a pair ofrotatable drums at the cutting station and a pair of rotatable drums atthe splicing station. One of the drums at the cutting station has ablade for cutting the old and new webs, and a perforated old web holdingand releasing portion disposed adjacent one side of the blade. The otherdrum at the cutting station has a perforated new web holding andreleasing portion that is disposed on the side of the blade opposite tothe one side when the cutting drums are in positions such that the bladeis disposed adjacent to the other drum. One of the drums at the splicingstation has a perforated portion adapted to retain a splicing tapethereon for application to the abutted new and old webs at the splicingstation.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEE- F5820 3 sum 1 or 2 INVENTORHISASHI TAKIMOTO .SuJLrw Z"L\L\ If ATTORNEYS PATENTED 3. 717. 057

SHEET 2 OF 2 WEB CUTTING DEVICE IN AN APPARATUS FOR SPLICING AN OLD WEBAND A NEW WEB BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relatesto an apparatus for splicing webs of paper, plastic, metal foil and thelike (hereinafter referred to simply as web), and in particular to anapparatus for continuously splicing the web ends when the web iscontinuously fed into a web treating station.

In the present invention, the webs are spliced by making an end of oneof the webs abut against the end of another web and connecting the bothends with each other. A known apparatus for splicing webs in the mannerdescribed above is disclosed in US. Pat. No. 2,745,464. The splicingapparatus disclosed in the patent is suitable for splicing webs ofrelatively large thickness as carton paper, but it is not possible tosplice webs which are likely to generate static electricity such asplastic web. This is because of the fact that when the overlaid webs arecut at the portion near the ends thereof, the cut piece of one websticks to the surface of the end of the other web and accordingly theend of the web with the cut piece thereon happens to stick to thesurface of the feeding roller and advance under the guide plate on whichthe end of the web is disposed to abut against the end of the other web.Therefore, the apparatus disclosed in the patent has beendisadvantageous in that the splicing of web material likely to generatestatic electricity is not able to be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present inventionis to provide an apparatus for splicing webs which is able to splicewebs that are likely to generate static electricity.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus forsplicing webs which is able to splice effectively webs that are likelyto curl.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further objects of the presentinvention will be made apparent from the following description togetherwith the features and advantages thereof taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional elevational view of apparatus constructed inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention; I

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the spliced portion of the webstaken along the longitudinal direction, showing the spliced condition ofthe webs spliced in accordance with the present apparatus;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional elevational view of the cutting stationof the apparatus of the present invention showing the cutting operationthereof;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional elevational view of the cutting stationof the apparatus of the present invention, showing the station when thecut webs are fed slightly forwardly;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIGS. 3 and 4, showing the station when thecut webs are further fed forwardly with the ends of the webs abuttingagainst each other; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional elevational view of the splicing stationof the apparatus of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Now referring to FIG. 1 showingthe entire general construction of the apparatus of the invention, thereference numeral 1 indicates a web feed out station having an old webroll 20 and a new web roll 3a rotatably supported in the station. A passroll 4 for guiding the old web 2 and a pass roll 5 for guiding the newweb 3 therealong respectively are provided in the web feed out stationat the exit thereof. Downstream of the pass rolls 4 and 5 is disposed aframework 7 supporting a pair of cutting drums 8 and 9 constituting acutting station of the apparatus and a pair of splicing drums 12 and 13constituting a splicing station of the apparatus. Between the pair ofcutting drums 8 and 9 and the pair of splicing drums l2 and 13 aredisposed guide plates 10 and 11. The cutting station is spaced from thesplicing station by the distance lwhich is short enough for the cut endof the web to reach the splicing station while the cutting drums arerotated through one revolution that is, the leading end of the out newweb is inserted into the guide plates and reaches the web splicing drumsl2 and 13 by the time the web end holding portion 37 comes around backto its original position.

The old web 2 is fed along the pass roll 4 disposed upstream of theframework 7 and along a pass roll 6 disposed downstream of the framework7 as shown in FIG. 1. One of the pair of the cutting rollers 8, 9 andsplicing rollers 12, 13 is urged upwardly by means of a spring or thelike. In the present embodiment, the lower rollers 8 and 12 are urgedupwardly by springs 35 and 36, respectively. The drums 8 and 12 areprovided with hollow rotational shafts 17 and 22, respectively, whichare held substantially horizontally in slidable relation with a pair ofside guide slots 38 and 39 provided on the framework 7. The slots 38 and39 have upper limit ends which the shafts 17 and 22 are urged against bythe springs 35 and 36. Similarly, the cutting drum 9 and the splicingdrum 13 are provided with hollow shafts 41 and 27 respectively.

As best shown in FIG. 3, the cutting drum 8 to be brought into contactwith the old web 2 is provided with a cutting blade 14 secured with abolt 15 thereto. The drum chamber 16 of the cutting drum 8 is connectedwith a blower (not shown) outside through the hollow portion of thehollow shaft 17. The cutting drum 8 is further provided with a pluralityof suction perforations 19 on the drum surface so that the cut piece 2'of the old web may be sucked thereon by pressure reduction within thedrum chamber 16. The upper cutting drum 9 is a drum to be brought intocontact with the new web 3 and is provided with a partition 42. Thecutting drum 9 is further provided with a perforation 24 near thecutting blade receiving portion 20 and a plurality ofsuctionperforations 26 on the surface thereof, the perforations 24 beingconnected with the chamber 21 and the perforations 26 being connectedwith the other chamber 25. The chambers 21 and 25 are connected withsemi-cylindricalhollow portions 23 and 46, respectively, of the hollowshaft 41. When the perforation 24 is used to suck air therethrough, thecut end of the new web: 3 is sucked on the surface of the drum 9, andwhen it is used to blow air off therethrough, the cut end of the new web3 is separated from the surface of the drum 9. Similarly, when the airis sucked through the perforations 26, the cut piece 3 of the new web 3is sucked on the surface of the drum 9. In order to either blow or suckair through the perforations 24 and 26, the respective compartments 21and 25 are connected with blowers (not shown). The cutting bladereceiving portion and the perforation 24 constitute a web end holdingand releasing portion of the cutting drum 9. The plurality ofperforations 26 and the substantially flat surface of the drum in thevicinity of the perforations 26 constitute a web cut piece holding andreleasing portion of the cutting drum 9.

The upper splicing drum 13 has a drum chamber 31 connected with thehollow shaft 27 and is provided with one or more perforations 30 on thesurface thereof so as to suck a splicing tape 29 on the surface thereofwhen the drum chamber 31 is reduced of its pressure. The hollow shaft 27has a hollow portion 28 similar to the hollow shaft 17 having the hollowportion 18 in the lower cutting drum 8. The construction of the splicingdrum as described above is shown in FIGS. 1 and 6. In the framework 7,there is disposed a suitable power means (not shown) for rotating thedrums 8, 9, 12 and 13 in the direction shown by the arrows B, C, D, andE in FIGS. 3, 4 and 6. Referring to FIG. 1, the old or new web 2 or 3 isfed into a web treating station 44 after passing through the websplicing station guided by the pass roll 6. The foregoing spring means35 and 36 urging the hollow shafts l7 and 22, respectively, upwards,

may be in the form of hydraulic pressure cylinders.

In operation, as shown in FIG. 1, prior to the splicing operation thenew web 3 is drawn out of the roll in the web feed out station and theend of the new web 3 is sucked by the web holding portion 43 of thecutting drum 9 by suction through the perforations 26 by reducing thepressure within the drum chamber compartment of the drum 9. At the sametime, the splicing tape 29 is sucked onto the surface of the splicingdrum 13 at the perforations with the adhesive bearing surface facingoutwardly. This is also effected by reducing the pressure within thedrum chamber 31 of the drum 13.

Thereafter, at the time of feeding the tail end of the old web 2, theend of the old web 2 is detected automatically or manually and the drums8, 9, 12 and 13 are all rotated in the directions of the arrows B, C, D,and E. When the drums are rotated to the extent as shown in FIG. 3, thenew web 3 is overlaid on the old web 2 and cut together by the cuttingblade 14 and the blade receiving portion 20. Since the drum chamber 16of the lower cutting drum 8 isunder reduced pressure at this cuttinginstance, the cut piece 2' of the old web 2 is sucked on the cuttingdrum 8 at the perforations 19. Further, since the drum chamber 21 isunder reduced pressure, the end of the cut new web 3 is sucked on thesurface of the cutting drum 9 at the web end holding and releasingportion 37 including the perforation 24, and then released by blowingair through the perforation 24. Before the end of the new web 3 isreleased from the web holding portion 37, the drums 8 and 9 are rotatedto the extent as shown in FIG. 4 with the new web 3 stuck on the drum 9so that the cut end 3' of the new web 3 may be separated from the cutpiece 2' of the old web 2 stuck on the surface of the cutting drum 8,thus overcoming the electrostatic force acting therebetween.

At the instance when the drums are rotated to the extent as shown inFIG. 5, the drum chamber 21 is under increased pressure (the device forreducing or increasing the pressure is not shown in the drawings) so asto blow off the end of the web 3 stuck on the web holding portion 37 ofthe drum 9. Thus, the end of the new web 3 is moved into the spacebetween the guide plates 10 and 11. In the space between the guideplates 10 and 11, the top end of the new web 3 abuts against the tailend of the old web 2. By the further rotation of the drums, the old andnew webs 2 and 3 respectively are fed forwardly in the direction A or Atoward the web splicing station in end-to-end relation. During the aboveprocess, the drum chamber 25 of cutting drum 9 is under reduced pressureand, accordingly, the cut piece 3' of the new web 3 is sucked onto thedrum surface and is removed. Similarly, the cutpiece 2 of the old web 2is sucked onto the surface of the drum 8 and is removed.

In the splicing station, when the two webs 2 and 3 in the end-to-endrelation are fed between the splicing drums 12 and 13 as shown in FIG.6, the splicing tape 29 is overlaid on the abutting portion of the websas best shown in FIG. 2. Then the drums l2 and 13 are further rotated inthe D and E directions up to the position shown in FIG. 1. Thus, onecycle of the web splicing process is completed.

Though, in the above described embodiment of the apparatus in accordancewith the present invention, the cut pieces of the webs and the splicingtape are all held on the surface of the drums by suction, it willbeunderstood that these tapes or cut pieces of the webs may be stuck onthe surface of the drums by applying or utilizing adhesive tapes havingadhesive layers on the both surfaces thereof. Moreover, the direction offeeding the webs is not limited to the horizontal as disclosed herein,that is, the web may be fed vertically, for example.

As apparently seen from the above description, the end of the cut webfed newly from the web roll is sucked on the surface of the rotatingdrum while the cut piece 2 of the old web is sucked on the surface ofanother cutting drum at the position where the both webs are in facecontact with each other. Therefore, the webs are prevented from stickingto each other by static electricity. This makes it possible to spliceany kind of web, even of thin plastic material, that is likely togenerate static electricity.

Further in accordance with the present invention, it will be understoodthat it is possible for the apparatus of this invention to splice websof material likely to curl such as paper, metal foil and the like.

I claim:

1. In an apparatus for splicing an old and a new web, comprising a webfeed out station, a web cutting station and a web splicing stationarranged in order, said web cutting station comprising a pair ofrotatable drums between which the old and new webs are advanced, one ofsaid drums being provided with a blade to cut the webs and with an oldweb holding and releasing portion disposed adjacent one side of saidblade, the other of said drums being provided with a new web holding andreleasing portion that is disposed on the side of said blade opposite tosaid one side when the drums are in positions such that the blade isdisposed adjacent to the other drum, the improvement comprismg:

upper and lower guide plates extending substantially parallel to the webadvancing direction and on opposite sides of the old and new websrespectively and positioned so as to prevent the new web from beingattracted to the old web by electrostatic force, said upper and lowerguide plates extending between said web cutting station and said websplicing station.

2. The apparatus for splicing webs as defined in claim 1 wherein saidother drum in contact with the new web has two compartments, one ofwhich is connected with said web holding and releasing portion and theother of which is connected with a perforation through the surface ofsaid other drum, said perforation being positioned such that it isdisposed on said one side of said blade when said drums are in positionssuch that said blade is disposed adjacent to said other drum, and meansfor selectively supplying both compartments simultaneously with positiveair pressure or suction pressure.

3. Apparatus for splicing webs as defined in claim 1 wherein said webfeed out station comprises a web roll support having at least two webroll holding means, one of said holding means supporting the old web andthe other of said holding means supporting the new web, and a pair ofpass rolls to guide the new and old webs in close parallel relation toeach other.

4. in an apparatus for splicing an old and a new web, comprising a webfeed out station, a web cutting station and a web splicing stationarranged in order, said web cutting station comprising a pair ofrotatable drums between which the old and new webs are advanced, one ofthe said drums being provided with a blade to cut the webs and with anold web holding and releasing portion disposed adjacent one side of saidblade, the other of said drums being provided with a new web holding andreleasing portion that is disposed on the side of said blade opposite tosaid one side when the drums are in positions such that said blade isdisposed adjacent to the other drum, the improvement comprismg:

two compartments within said other drum in contact with the new web, oneof said compartments being fluid connected to said web holding andreleasing portion and including at least one perforation terminating atsaid new web, the other compartment being fluid connected by at leastone perforation through the surface of said drum, with said perforationbeing positioned such that it is disposed on said one side of said bladewhen said drums are in position such that the blade is disposed adjacentto said other drum, and

means for selectively supplying both compartments simultaneously withpositive air pressure or suction pressure.

1. In an apparatus for splicing an old and a new web, comprising a webfeed out station, a web cutting station and a web splicing stationarranged in order, said web cutting station comprising a pair ofrotatable drums between which the old and new webs are advanced, one ofsaid drums being provided with a blade to cut the webs and with an oldweb holding and releasing portion disposed adjacent one side of saidblade, the other of said drums being provided with a new web holding andreleasing portion that is disposed on the side of said blade opposite tosaid one side when the drums are in positions such that the blade isdisposed adjacent to the other drum, the improvement comprising: upperand lower guide plates extending substantially parallel to the webadvancing direction and on opposite sides of the old and new websrespectively and positioned so as to prevent the new web from beingattracted to the old web by electrostatic force, said upper and lowerguide plates extending between said web cutting station and said websplicing station.
 1. In an apparatus for splicing an old and a new web,comprising a web feed out station, a web cutting station and a websplicing station arranged in order, said web cutting station comprisinga pair of rotatable drums between which the old and new webs areadvanced, one of said drums being provided with a blade to cut the websand with an old web holding and releasing portion disposed adjacent oneside of said blade, the other of said drums being provided with a newweb holding and releasing portion that is disposed on the side of saidblade opposite to said one side when the drums are in positions suchthat the blade is disposed adjacent to the other drum, the improvementcomprising: upper and lower guide plates extending substantiallyparallel to the web advancing direction and on opposite sides of the oldand new webs respectively and positioned so as to prevent the new webfrom being attracted to the old web by electrostatic force, said upperand lower guide plates extending between said web cutting station andsaid web splicing station.
 2. The apparatus for splicing webs as definedin claim 1 wherein said other drum in contact with the new web has twocompartments, one of which is connected with said web holding andreleasing portion and the other of which is connected with a perforationthrough the surface of said other drum, said perforation beingpositioned such that it is disposed on said one side of said blade whensaid drums are in positions such that said blade is disposed adjacent tosaid other drum, and means for selectively supplying both compartmentssimultaneously with positive air pressUre or suction pressure. 3.Apparatus for splicing webs as defined in claim 1 wherein said web feedout station comprises a web roll support having at least two web rollholding means, one of said holding means supporting the old web and theother of said holding means supporting the new web, and a pair of passrolls to guide the new and old webs in close parallel relation to eachother.